Opposable Thumbs —

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 arcade sticks: get ’em if you can

Mad Catz hit a home run with the arcade sticks for Street Fighter IV, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on a set and proceeded to mod the hell out of them. Those sticks were given to readers as part of a past Child's Play fundraiser, and we knew we had to check out the new Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament Sticks when we learned of their existence.

These sticks are based on the past Tournament Edition sticks Mad Catz has released, so we didn't expect much in the way of differences. What we didn't know, however, was whether or not the quality would be the same as the previous sticks. With only 5,000 of these sticks made, they would sell out no matter what. So how do they compare to the Street Fighter IV sticks?

The song remains the same

The stick may feature a color scheme and artwork that's Marvel vs. Capcom 3 themed, but everything else seems to be the same. While some people may want a wireless stick, tournament players much prefer wired, to make sure batteries don't die, signals don't drop, and excuses aren't leveled at the hardware. This is aimed at serious players, and most people who are willing to pay $160 for an arcade stick are going to want to use a wired connection.

The rest of the design decisions are a nod to Japanese-style arcade machines. The stick itself is a ball, not a bat, and you know my feelings on that so I'll keep them to myself. With 30mm convex buttons, arcade players will feel right at home, and the hardware is made by the arcade giant Sanwa. Put simply, everything looks and feels great.

The start and select buttons are on the front of the stick. Each button can be given different levels of turbo in case you'd like to play a 2D shooter, and the buttons are laid out in the standard Vewlix configuration.

There is no way around it, this is a stick that wants to make you feel, as much as possible, that you're playing at an arcade. A Japanese arcade.

The important thing: how easy to modify?

We cracked open the sticks from the bottom, the same mistake we made last time, and saw innards that look identical to the past sticks. The buttons are still color-coded and can be easily removed, with connections that slide on and off—no soldering at all. If you'd like to change out the buttons for concave or different colors, you just need to order another set of 30mm buttons from any number of online retailers. We've used Lizard Lick in the past and have gotten great service.

The plastic shell under the metal plate on the bottom of the stick and the controls

The stick itself can be swapped out for a bat-style stick, or different color if you'd like. It can easily be modded, just like its older brothers, and that's what we were looking for. If you want to swap out the bottoms, be sure to grab some Allen wrenches and go in from the top; opening up the bottom reveals a plastic tray between you and the connections, complete with screws that have been dabbed with plastic. Going in from above allows you to lift the whole assembly off with much less fuss.

A dark and moody color scheme

If you liked the previous hardware, you'll dig these sticks just as much. Nearly identical to the Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition sticks aside from the colors and artwork, they're high-quality sticks with a lot going for them in terms of features. Even if you're not into fighting games, playing the Xbox Live Pac-Man titles with a good arcade stick can't be beat.

While the limited number of sticks made means these may already be sold out (and then resold at much higher prices), there is nothing new here to get excited about outside of the artwork. This is a great stick, and an object of lust for Marvel or Capcom fans, but if you have a Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition stick you're not missing out on anything.

Mad Catz's latest may be more of the same, but when the same is this good it's hard to get upset. I'll just hang onto this until Child's Play 2011...

For anyone considering one of these, MadCatz usually has sales via coupon codes during the weekends of major tournaments. With Winter Brawl happening the 26th-27th, there may be one such sale ... so check the front page of shoryuken.com over the next day or so.

How do they (performance-wise) compare to the HORI sticks? Warning: I know nothing about these products. I just noticed that today's Amazon video game Deal of the Day is a 360 arcade stick. (Reg price $130, sale price $85)

How do they (performance-wise) compare to the HORI sticks? Warning: I know nothing about these products. I just noticed that today's Amazon video game Deal of the Day is a 360 arcade stick. (Reg price $130, sale price $85)

Entirely a matter of preference. Plenty of people swear by their HORI sticks. The biggest difference is that MadCatz sticks use Sanwa parts (the exact same parts used in the Street Figther 4 arcade cabinet), whereas HORI sticks use Seimitsu parts. [EDIT] See comment below, apparently the parts in the linked model are NOT Seimitsu.

Having used both I prefer Sanwa parts, but there's nothing wrong with Seimitsu stuff.

I really wish they had moved the stick further away from the buttons this time.

You can use the outer buttons instead of the inner ones. Both SF4 and MvC3 only use six buttons, so two will go unused anyway.

squidz wrote:

How do they (performance-wise) compare to the HORI sticks? Warning: I know nothing about these products. I just noticed that today's Amazon video game Deal of the Day is a 360 arcade stick. (Reg price $130, sale price $85)

The Hori HRAPs are quality sticks as well. The particular model posted has Hori buttons, however, instead of Sanwa or Seimitsu ones, so you'll want to swap those out ASAP (which is both easy and inexpensive). With the SF4/MvC3 TE sticks, you're good to go right out of the box.

I really wish they had moved the stick further away from the buttons this time.

You can use the outer buttons instead of the inner ones. Both SF4 and MvC3 only use six buttons, so two will go unused anyway.

squidz wrote:

How do they (performance-wise) compare to the HORI sticks? Warning: I know nothing about these products. I just noticed that today's Amazon video game Deal of the Day is a 360 arcade stick. (Reg price $130, sale price $85)

The Hori HRAPs are quality sticks as well. The particular model posted has Hori buttons, however, instead of Sanwa or Seimitsu ones, so you'll want to swap those out ASAP (which is both easy and inexpensive). With the SF4/MvC3 TE sticks, you're good to go right out of the box.

Silly question: what's the difference? Is it a performance/responsiveness issue, and if so how and why? Or is it just durability, in which case I can wait until they fail?

Looking to buy my first stick, so could definitely use some info. Also, can the stick itself on that be replaced? Honestly, I'd like to just build my own stick, but I sadly don't have the time...so I figure something easily moddable (so basically paying for the box/Xbox circuitry) is a good alternative.

EDIT: On the other hand, the extra $50 or so to be able to plug into a PC.....

I was thinking of buying a pair of arcade sticks and there is just no way I could see myself spending so much money for 2 so I was looking for a cheap quality stick and so far I'm most interested in the HORI Arcade Fighting Stick 3. It's only 55$ (was 40$ earlier) and it was just recently released in February.

Why pick that POS up for $160 when you can pick up X-Arcade for about the same (with adapters for your console of choice) and where switching consoles doesn't result in buying a whole new set of sticks?

Because, as anyone who's used both X-Arcade sticks and quality sticks knows, the X-Arcade setups are garbage. Not only do you have to swap out both the craptastic stick and the craptastic buttons (and, depending on which you get, they don't fit without serious modification), but you also have to rely on rather flakey adapters.

BlackfootSB wrote:

I was thinking of buying a pair of arcade sticks and there is just no way I could see myself spending so much money for 2 so I was looking for a cheap quality stick and so far I'm most interested in the HORI Arcade Fighting Stick 3. It's only 55$ (was 40$ earlier) and it was just recently released in February.

I'm not fond of the low-end (non-Real Arcade Pro) Hori sticks. I've had bad experiences with mine and have heard similar horror stories from many others. They're passable out of the box, but they tend to die very quickly (and are difficult to repair, given that everything's soldered to the PCB).

I picked up the SF4 stick and love it to pieces. The quality of the perephial cannot be understated.

Bonus, you can plug it into a PC for some MAME/emulator action as well.

I'll admit I never wound up playing SF4 enough to make $150 for a stick worth it, but I more than got my money's worth by plugging it into my PC and using it to play tons of old games. Damn thing still looks and plays as good as new, too. Even the box is still in good shape.